In "Engaging in Persuasive and Credible Communication", you will learn the key skill of persuasion, in the context of professional communication in a globalised world.
Persuasive communication is essential to any professional workplace. From a simple email request for your colleague to help you, to developing a presentation for the board of directors, these are acts of communication that require a good degree of persuasion. Even the process of entering the workforce requires effective persuasive communication, for in the act of writing your resume, cover-letter, or in the interview process, you are essentially persuading the potential employer to hire you.
By the end of this course, you will be able to structure and express your ideas in a convincing and persuasive manner in writing, apply basic principles of persuasive writing to convince different sets of audiences at the globalised workplace, and learn to engage in persuasive and credible communication across different cultures in a complex globalised environment.

Taught By

Derrick Ng

Norhayati ISMAIL

Transcript

[SOUND] In the last video, we learned that having a good structure is really important in persuasive writing. And we learned a simple but effective technique of structuring possessive writing, the persuasion map. This video is an extension of the last video. And at the end of the class, you'll be able to explain the AIDA framework and apply it to your writing. The AIDA framework is a technique that has been around for a long time. It is frequently used by people in the advertising and sales industry to persuade consumers to promote or buy their products. AIDA, in fact, is a simple acronym that stands for attention, interest, desire, and action. The first A refers to the need to attract attention. Again, in today's globalized society where there's so much competition for different products and services, we are bombarded daily with an excessive amount of information. This makes our attention span much shorter than before. In order for any message to be persuasive, it has to be able to attract attention right from the beginning. In order to do so, you need to have an opener that immediately captures your audience's attention. This may sometimes come in the form of a provocative statement. Some outdated textbooks will tell you to open with a powerful sentence or question that will instantly capture your readers' attentions, such as how you can make several thousand dollars in a weekend. Or do you want to make $50 every five minutes? It might work for someone who is desperate for cash. But as we learned in the last module, using exaggerated language will not build trust, and therefore you lose credibility. Such headlines may, instead of attracting your audience's attention, immediately turn them away. These headlines today are known as click baits. A negative term use to describe sensationalist headlines designed to attract people to click on something in order to earn more advertising revenue. It is frowned upon and annoys people, so remember avoid exaggeration and hyperbole. The question of what will attract attention is a difficult one to answer. The truth is, it really depends. It depends on the context of the situation as well, i.e., what you wish to persuade your audience, as well as what interests your audience. This, again, reinforces the importance of understanding your audience. There's no one single formula that tells you what grabs everyone's attention. To create something that will attract your audience, go back to the audience analysis and think of what is the biggest concern with the topic that you are writing about. Put yourself in their shoes and think of what would excite them and immediately draw their attention. Are there any problems your audience face with the topic? If you know that there's a problem that your audience have, how would your opening shift the way that they think about their problem and resolve their issues? What powerful ways, words, or concepts would immediately create a sense of resonance, i.e., a sense of common identity and emotional connection between you and your audience. In 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced Apple's iPhone for the first time. In his opening he said, every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. The word revolutionary back in 2007 was very powerful. It created a strong mental image and made people especially excited about Apple's products. It was a bold provocative claim and he did capture a lot of attention. The next step of the AIDA framework is to create interest. With Steve Jobs' opener, the interest was already created together with capturing the attention of the audience. So what he did next was to sustain and deepen the interest. In fact, what steve jobs did next was to give reasons for his claims in the same way we have learned in the persuasion map. So this is what he said. In 1984, we introduced the Macintosh. It didn't just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we introduced the first iPod, and it didn't just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry. Well, today, we're introducing three revolutionary products of this class. All of these are reasons to believe his bold claim in the opening, when he suggested that the iPhone is going to be a revolutionary product. So he sustained the interest of his audience with the fact that Apple, as a brand, has created many other revolutionary products before. So therefore, the iPhone is going to be revolutionary as well. The important thing here is to substantiate your opening statement or claim, especially if it's provocative. Otherwise, it would merely be an unsubstantiated claim, and the audience may not be convinced, and the persuasion is likely to fail. The next step of the AIDA framework is to create desire. Creating desire is a difficult thing to do. To create desire, you at first, again, need to know what your audience need. When you can show what you have to offer is of value to your audience or it is something your audience needs, you will have succeeded in creating desire. The important thing is to meet the needs of your audience. In the context of a job application, having demonstrated that you are indeed a right fit for the organization, you have the skills that are needed by the organization. One way to do so is to give specific examples or concrete evidence to support what you are saying. In the case of Apple's iPhone, Steve Jobs created desire by giving a live demonstration of the benefits of iPhone. By showing the unique features of the iPhone and how it is indeed revolutionary during the period. In other words, to show proof and evidence of his opening claim. The last step of the AIDA framework, which is probably the most important step, is to induce action by having a call to action. This is also the step where most people forget when designing persuasive messages. A call to action is something that encourages your audience to do something. It can be something simple that says please contact me at blah, blah, blah. An effective call to action is one that helps you complete the purpose of your message. So if your purpose of writing was to convince your audience to donate to a charity, an example of a call to action would be, donate now by calling this number. If your purpose was to get your audience to sign up for something, tell them where and how. Some sales people end their pitch by giving their audience extra incentives to take the final step. That is, to buy their product by giving a discount. So buy now and get a 10% discount is another example of a call to action. After persuading your audience of your claims, always encourage them to take action in a clear call to action. Use action verbs to create urgency. A call to action also ends your message very powerfully. The important thing is to remind your audience what exactly are you persuading them of. Stimulate your audience to take action and ensure that this is clear and direct language. That forms A, the last step of the AIDA framework. To summarize, the AIDA framework refers to attracting attention, sustaining interest, creating desire, then stimulating action. I've given several examples of how we can use the AIDA framework, including Steve Jobs' iPhone presentation. What we have to remember, however, is that we are not Steve Jobs. We have vastly different source credibility, but this is how Steve Jobs captures the attention of his audience and it falls under the AIDA framework. Now, how would you write to capture you own audience's attention in order to persuade?

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